Repiping in Northern Utah

Are leaks, rusty water or weak pressure pointing to worn-out pipes?

When leaks keep appearing, the water runs brown, or pressure keeps dropping, the pipes themselves are often failing, and repiping replaces them with new water lines. Repiping means swapping out the supply pipes that carry fresh water to your faucets, showers, toilets and appliances. It can cover the whole house or a single area, like a bathroom, the kitchen or one run along a cold outside wall. Patching one leak at a time makes sense while most of the pipe is sound. Once pipes are wearing out along their length, new pipe is often a more sensible fix than a long string of repairs. Repiping is one of our plumbing services, from small sections to complete homes.

Warning signs your home needs repiping

One leak after another

Pinhole leaks in copper, drips at fittings and repair patches that keep adding up mean the pipe is thinning out. The next leak is often close behind the last one.

Brown, rusty or metallic-tasting water

Discolored water, most noticeable first thing in the morning or after a trip, often comes from older steel pipe rusting on the inside. It can also stain sinks and laundry.

Pressure that keeps getting weaker

Rust and mineral scale slowly close off the inside of older pipe. Showers lose their strength, and running two fixtures at once becomes frustrating.

Pipe you can see is corroded

Green crust on copper, flaking or bulging steel pipe, or gray plastic polybutylene pipe in a basement or crawl space are all signs to get the rest of the system looked at.

Common causes of failing water pipes

Galvanized steel rusting from the inside

Many older homes in established neighborhoods were plumbed with galvanized steel. It rusts from the inside out, so the pipe can look fine while the opening shrinks and the walls thin.

Hard water scale

Northern Utah water carries a lot of dissolved minerals. They build up inside pipes, valves and fittings, narrow the flow and can speed up wear at joints.

Years of freeze-thaw stress

Pipes in crawl spaces and outside walls take a beating from cold winters. A pipe that has frozen before is more likely to crack at a weakened spot the next time.

Mixed metals and weak materials

Where copper is joined straight to steel without the right fitting, the joint corrodes faster. Polybutylene, a gray plastic pipe used in some homes, has a poor record for leaks at its fittings.

What to expect from a repipe

We schedule a visit during business hours and look at every pipe we can reach in the basement, crawl space, garage and under sinks. We ask about leaks, pressure and water color, check your water pressure, and identify what your pipes are made of. Then we explain whether a partial or whole-home repipe makes sense, and you get the price before any work starts. Financing is available through our lending partners; see financing for details.

Partial or whole-home repipe

A partial repipe replaces one section, such as the lines to a bathroom, the kitchen, or a run through a cold outside wall that keeps freezing. A whole-home repipe replaces all the supply lines from the main shutoff to every fixture. It is the choice when problems are showing up all over the house.

PEX or copper

PEX is flexible plastic tubing. It needs fewer fittings, snakes through walls with smaller openings, and handles freezing better than rigid pipe, though no pipe is freeze-proof. Copper is rigid metal pipe with a long track record and good heat tolerance, but it takes more labor to install, and very hard water can wear it over time. Many repipes use some of each.

The work itself

We plan the routes first so wall and ceiling openings stay few and small. We cover floors and furniture near the work. We stage the work so your water stays on for as much of the job as we can, and we tell you ahead of time when it has to be off for switching lines over. We add shutoff valves where they make future repairs easier, then pressure-test the new pipe for leaks and flush it before your fixtures go back into service. A partial repipe can be a short job; a whole home takes longer and depends on its size and layout. New installations come with a workmanship warranty.

For a yearly look at your plumbing and HVAC, see our VIP Maintenance Plan. It costs $240 a year and includes one 2-hour visit a year covering an 88-point HVAC and plumbing inspection, a 1-inch filter replacement and a written report. Members also enjoy 10% off repairs and priority scheduling.

Repiping across Northern Utah

We repipe homes from our base in Brigham City, and the age of a neighborhood often tells us what we will find.

Weber and Davis County. Ogden, South Ogden, North Ogden and Layton mix older homes, where galvanized pipe is common, with newer subdivisions that sometimes need only a section replaced.

Box Elder County. Brigham City, Willard, Perry, Mantua, Corinne and Tremonton. Hard water and long winters wear on pipes in crawl spaces and outside walls.

Cache Valley. Logan, Hyrum, Nibley, North Logan and Smithfield. Sub-zero nights test every exposed run, so we pay close attention to how new pipe is routed and insulated.

Related services

A leak under a concrete floor is often the first sign a home needs new pipe; see slab leak repair. Protect new pipe from scale with water softener installation. If a section keeps freezing, our frozen and burst pipe repair page covers thawing and prevention.

Talk to us about repiping

Call (435) 730-2536 Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 6 PM, or schedule online. Your Comfort Heating & Air is licensed and insured. If you know roughly when the house was built, tell us; it helps us guess what pipe we will find.